1. Field
Various embodiments pertain to network devices, and more specifically to network infrastructure devices with knowledge of their own geographical location and a protocol that facilitates distribution of this geographical information to other network devices to facilitate geolocation on a network.
2. Background
The advent of IP-based networks has spawned many applications, including services that rely on, or benefit from, knowledge of geographical location information of network devices. However, the nature of IP networks makes it difficult to geographically locate devices on the network. That is, the geographical transparency of IP networks, where devices are identified by an IP address not location, makes it very difficult to identify the geographical location of network devices with any precision. This poses a problem when deploying services that rely on, or benefit from, knowing the geographical location of a network device. For example, voice-over-IP (VOIP) telephone communication services rely on knowing the geographical information of a telephone device to route emergency calls. An emergency call cannot be easily routed to a nearby call center without knowing the geographical location of the telephone device. In the event that the caller using a VOIP telephone is unable to provide an address, emergency services may be unable to locate the caller in any other way. Regulations of telephone services impose the need to locate a telephone device for emergency purposes.
Implementing geolocation support by including a global positioning device in each user network device, such as VOIP telephones, typically results in higher purchase costs for the user devices and, possibly, additional monthly service charges. Moreover, geolocation systems like GPS will typically not work well indoors where most phones are used. Alternatively, a preset or user-entered geographical location might be considered, but, since a network device may be moved to a different geographical location and reconnected to an IP network as part of normal use this method of geolocation for the network device is unreliable and impractical.
Thus, a way is needed to facilitate geolocation support for network devices on a communication network.